Pain was the first thing he felt. A deep, throbbing ache that radiated from every bruise, every cut, every place where those thugs had landed a blow. He was slumped against a tree, his body screaming in protest with every shallow breath. The forest around him was silent, except for the faint rustle of leaves, a gentle whisper that did nothing to soothe the roaring agony within him. He was Riu Xian now, a name that felt as foreign as this strange, new world. But the pain... the pain was sickeningly familiar.

  The memories of this new world had been a jumbled mess when he first arrived. Now though, they were starting to surface, like rocks poking through the mud after a downpour, offering him handholds in his desperation. "I need to heal… but how?" The thought was a frantic whisper in his mind.

  A technique flickered to the surface, a basic Qi-absorbing method that every beginner cultivator learned. It wasn't fancy, more like a child's first steps than a master's stride, but it was supposed to speed up healing. Of course, it needed fine control over Qi, something he was a complete novice at in this world's way of cultivation.

  "No other choice." He had to try. He gritted his teeth, fighting the pain that screamed at him to stay still, and forced himself into a meditative pose. The memories guided him: slow your breathing, quiet your mind, draw the Qi from around you.

  As he began, he felt the difference between this world's Qi and the Ki he knew from Murim. Back in Murim, Ki was a precious resource, scarce and fiercely contested. It was fire in your veins, all about forging the body into a weapon, making you stronger and faster. Cultivators channeled it in sharp, quick bursts, perfect for a fight. Here, Qi was like the air itself, abundant and all around him. Yet his meridians remained obstructed, like narrow, twisting paths. It was the same crippling limitation he'd faced in his past life, a cruel reminder of his misfortune.

  He tried to pull the Qi in, but his meridians were almost completely blocked. It was like trying to water a garden with a hose full of kinks. A little drifted his way, but it wasn't doing a thing for his injuries. Frustration tightened his jaw. "No wonder the basic Qi circulation is having no effect."

  His mind scrambled for another way. Then, an idea sparked. What if he used his old Murim methods with this new Qi stuff?

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  Murim techniques were all about brute force. You forced energy through blockages, breaking them down with sheer will and control, hitting them with sharp bursts of Ki. Though the way they were used was different between Murim and this world, at their core, Ki and Qi were the same type of energy. Maybe his old ways could help after all.

  He took a deep breath and started channeling the Qi, but this time, using the Murim techniques. First, he pictured his meridians, all those blocked-up streams. Then, like he used to do with Ki, he pushed, sending sharp bursts of pressure, trying to force the Qi through the tiny openings.

  It was a mess at first. The two techniques fought each other. The raw, aggressive Murim style clashed with the smooth flow of the Qi. His body trembled, sweat beading on his forehead as sparks of conflicting energies went haywire inside him. He almost gave up, the pain making him want to curl up and disappear.

  But he pushed on, tweaking the Murim method, softening it a little, but keeping the focus. Instead of just ramming the Qi through, he pulsed it, like a steady heartbeat, keeping the force but trying to match the Qi's natural flow.

  Suddenly, it was like a dam had burst. Qi flooded into him, way faster than before. The air around him shimmered, swirling into a visible vortex, a mini-whirlwind with him at its center. The combined method was working. The Qi, pushed by the Murim force but still flowing like Qi should, was clearing his meridians, little by little, with each pulse.

  High above, unseen by Riu Xian, a figure watched from atop a flying sword. Xiao Ming, a young cultivator from the Azure Cloud Sect, narrowed her eyes, her gaze fixed on the strange scene below. The sheer amount of Qi swirling around that boy was insane.

  "At this rate, his body can't take it," she thought, alarm tightening her chest. That much Qi would make any beginner cultivator explode. She got ready to jump in, sure she was about to see a gruesome mess.

  But then, she blinked. Riu Xian's body wasn't exploding. It was absorbing the Qi, refining it, using it to mend his worst injuries and clear out those blocked pathways. The vortex around him slowly faded as the process finished, leaving the forest quiet again.

  Riu Xian opened his eyes, his breath coming easier now. He still ached all over, but he felt… better. Stronger, somehow. And he could sense it, a slight, but definite, improvement in the flow inside him. "I've cleared some of the blockage. Five percent? Ten? Hard to tell." A flicker of hope, fragile but real, sparked within him. It wasn't much, not compared to what a real cultivator should have, but it was a start. A big start.

  From her perch in the sky, Xiao Ming stared, dumbfounded. "This kid just sucked in a mountain of Qi and didn't die. He even healed himself and unblocked some meridians. What in the world is he?" A normal person couldn't do that. Not even close. "What kind of secret are you hiding, kid?" She whispered, her eyes tracing the line of the youth below.